Feeling the Squeeze
by cheezburgerlover
Summary: A rebel aids Gordon in the Strider battle. I'm warning you now, CHARACTER DEATH. T for some gore and a bit of swearing. Oneshot.


_Based on one of my favorite fights: the Strider battle outside the Nexus. Not from Gordon's point of view. You'll see who in a second._

The gate groaned open. I guess that despite the gunship and the onslaught of soldiers, Dr. Freeman opened the gate and shut down the suppressor. He definitely wasn't human.

But I couldn't get distracted. An onslaught of soldiers were flooding through the gate. They set up some force field barriers and and took cover behind an APC. But even they couldn't bother me now.

Neither could the colossal Strider heading my way.

My mission wasn't glamorous. I just had to drag this impossibly heavy ammo crate to an area where Dr. Freeman would pass and help us kill the soldiers and Strider. I was holding one side of the crate, and a medic was holding the other.

"I think this is a good place!" She yelled over the screaming and gunfire. I released the crate. It fell to the ground, making an enormous "BOOM!"

"Sir! Here's your RPG!" A rebel came up to me with one of the most powerful weapons in the rebel's arsenal. New Little Odessa had taken over a dropship and sent it our way chock full of RPGs.

I opened the ammo crate and grabbed several rockets. I stuffed one into the weapon and put the rest on my belt. I felt like I was wearing blocks of concrete,

The Strider fired at the cement of the building where I was taking cover. Bits of cement and rock rained onto me.

"Oh, I think not!" I exclaimed. I doubt the Strider understood.

I waited for the strider to finish firing, then I came out of cover and fired a rocket at the Strider. It was momentarily stunned.

I went back into cover, stuffed another rocket into the launcher, and came out of cover, shooting the damn thing over and over. Another rebel had situated himself on a rooftop, and was firing at the Strider from a distance.

I came out of cover again. Horrible timing. It got four shots on me before I realized what was happening. I fell back into cover, screaming. A medic saw me, and started running towards me when a Combine soldier came out of cover and blasted him against the wall with his shotgun.

Damn. I was in trouble.

The other rebel equipped with an RPG fired at the soldier. The soldier was ripped in half by the explosion. His torso sailed in a bloody arc and hit a building. No time to be disgusted. The strider was weak, now. One or two more shots would end it.

But I heard a horrible sound. The sound of the Strider charging up its cannon. The air seemed to bend around the cannon. I knew that if I wasn't vaporized, I would be crushed by the falling building.

I closed my eyes and braced myself.

I heard a deafening boom that sounded like a cannon blast.

But I wasn't dead.

I heard a electronic scream as I opened my eyes. The Strider had been blasted backwards. I didn't see any rocket trail, which probably meant that no one had shot at it.

Suddenly, I realized that its cannon had malfunctioned. It had shot backwards, or something!

I was happy, but I didn't have the time or the health level to rejoice. Another medic came over to me. He poured a health vial onto one of my wounds. I had four gunshot wounds, though. The liquid of the vial only covered two.

"I'm outta vials. Can you go like this?"

I stood up. The two other shots hit my vest, so it wasn't really that bad.

"Thanks, I'm fine."

The leader of the attack came up to me.

"Hey. Go meet Dr. Freeman and tell him about the ammo crate. And quickly!"

I ran off. A large pit lay in the ground. A saw an opening of a large pipe, which I knew led to the other side of the plaza where Dr. Freeman would be arriving. I grabbed a few rockets and ran down a ramp of rubble into the pit, and through the pipe. I emerged in another pit, this one on the other side of the fence that split the plaza in two.

The front of the Nexus was just a staircase, a few columns, and some steel doors guarding the inside.

Several rebels ran around, trying to kill the soldiers way on the other side of the plaza. I ran through a gate and to a doorway. This was the only way out of the building Dr. Freeman was emerging from.

I stood next to the doorway and waited.

A minute later, I heard footsteps. My heart began to race. I would finally meet Gordon Freeman!

He turned a corner to face me. His suit was covered in blood and bullet holes.

"Dr. Freeman! Since you shut off the suppressor and opened the gate, we can _really _move people through now! The Combine's gonna feel the squeeze! We dropped a crate of rockets comin' across the plaza. If you can make it there, you should have everything you need to take down these Striders."

He continued. He switched his weapon to his RPG and sprinted on. I readied my RPG and followed him. A new Strider was in the plaza now. Rebels were firing rockets at it, but it didn't seem to do much. Dr. Freeman fired one of his rockets and hit the Strider dead on. It seemed to falter for a second, but then stood up again. It began to fire at Gordon. If he died, it was all over.

I shot a rocket at it. The rocket hit the Strider in the leg. It kept shooting at Gordon. He fired a rocket again. This one killed the Strider. He now had fresh blood creeping down his suit.

A medic gave him a med kit and ran off. But I felt rumbling. This could only mean one thing. Another Strider. I groaned. A Strider had come from behind us. Gordon immediately fired a rocket at it. The Strider was stunned, but it was still strong. It killed one of the rebels easily, even before Gordon had picked up ammo from another dead rebel and put it in his RPG.

He fired at the Strider again. I got my shot in, along with two others. A few rebels were shooting it with a an AR2, but it didn't do any good.

The strider lifted it's mighty leg and brought it down on one of the medics. Gross. The leg came right through the rebel, killing him instantly. Gordon got another shot in and took cover behind an overturned APC.

I ran behind an abandoned dropship capsule and tossed a rocket to Gordon. He put it in his RPG and fired at the Strider, finally killing it.

I cheered. Gordon, as usual, was silent. But I saw a smile creep across his face, like he knew something I didn't. He gave me a "Come on!" motion with his hands and ran off. I followed him back through the pipe.

Yet another Strider was coming when we came back up the rubble ramp and to the supply crate. Gordon threw open the top of the crate and grabbed a rocket. Because there were so many rebels armed with RPGs, the Strider was a pushover. It was a lifeless heap in under a minute.

But _another_ Strider came from around a corner across the plaza. I felt a pain in my rib. The soldiers were back for more. And I gave it to them.

The Strider charged up its cannon. I saw a blue stream of energy shooting from the cannon and hitting a building. The boom came a split second after the Strider fired. Rocks and cement flew everywhere. Another rebel was vaporized. He slowly floated through the air and burst into sparks.

Gordon had been badly injured. He had been thrown against the wall. His RPG rolled away. He groaned. The Strider seemed to chirp with joy. It fired one bullet at Gordon, as if to tease him. Gordon grunted again. A soldier bent down and chuckled. He kicked Gordon.

"You jerk!!" I screamed at the soldier. He replied with a kick to my ribs.

"Augh!" I coughed up a bit of blood. Two more soldiers came and grabbed Gordon by the chest. They picked him up and rammed his head against the wall. The were hysterical now, their laughing almost unbearable. Gordon lay lifeless on the ground, a puddle of blood growing rapidly.

"As for you," One of the soldiers said to me, "You die now."

The soldier put his finger on the trigger of his SMG.

"Wait." One of the soldiers said.

"What?!" The other asked.

"Let's kill him with one of Gordon's weapons!"

"Good idea!" The other said.

One of the soldiers picked up Gordon's crowbar.

"You'll die soon, you little... you little son of a-"

The soldier swung the crowbar.

"AAAAAAAAUUUGGGHHHH!"

The world faded away.

_**Did you see that coming? Thought not. Why did I write this depressing story? I'm not exactly sure. You have permission to call me anything you want, but I have the profanity filter enabled. But don't forget to actually critique my story!! Thanks! And I hope that this will be my last depressing story for a while.**_


End file.
